Allow us to clear the air......
- WHEN MY ELECTRONIC AIR CLEANER (EAC) CLICKS ALL THE TIME - DOES THAT MEAN IT'S WORKING PROPERLY?
- DOES AN ELECTRONIC AIR CLEANER PRODUCE OZONE? IS IT DANGEROUS?
- WHICH IS THE MOST EFFICIENT TYPE OF AIR CLEANER?
- IS THE ELECTRONIC AIR CLEANER TECHNOLOGY OBSOLETE?
- I HAVE WHITE DUST IN MY HOME
- HOW IS AN AIR PURIFIER DIFFERENT FROM AN AIR FILTER?
It is a myth that Electronic Air Cleaners are working properly when you hear a lot of clicking. Approximatel 95% of the time they should be silent. EAC's collect the particles they don't zap or burn them. Excessive clicking (arcing) usually indicates dirty cells or a problem within the equipment.
The only time you may hear an arc is when a large particle passes through the Air Cleaner.
Yes, Electronic Air Cleaners produce ozone. They produce it as a byproduct, like other household appliances, such as hairdryers, electric fans, kitchen mixers etc..
They are not to be confused with ozone generators, which are designed to produce ozone.
Extensive testing of Electronic Air Cleaners, in both test chambers and actual homes, shows that the ozone produced is well below the indoor safety levels set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Agency.
There are six types of filtration equipment. Keeping track of the differences between each type may become confusing - here is a brief description of each type along with a description of their effectiveness.
DUSTSTOP FILTERS are basic furnace filters which every forced air system will have. These filters do very little for indoor air pollution. There main purpose is to protect the furnace blower and it's compartment from lint and other large particles. These filters should not really be mistaken for filtration equipment.
MEDIA FILTERS are five to seven times more efficient than duststop filters. They use a filter paper that is pleated inside the frame. They work in the same fashion as a kitchen fawcett strainer. The large particles are trapped in the filter, while the smaller particles that harm humans travel directly through the media fibers. These media filters must be replaced more frequently than dustop filters because they capture more particulate than regular duststop filters and they tend to become clogged reducing air flow through the system which can cause damage to HVAC equipment. These filters can never be cleaned or washed.
SELF-CHARGING MECHANICAL FILTERS filters work on static electricity. The same type of small charge you receive when rubbing your feet across a carpet in dry weather and touch a door knob. Again only slightly more efficient than a standard duststop filter and the efficiency drops as the realative humidity increases.
ELECTROSTATIC CHARGED MEDIA FILTERS are made from a dielectric material (normally nonconductive fiber glass or cellulose) stretched across a frame. Applying a high dc voltage to the dielectric creates an electrostatic field. However these electrostatic fields are not sufficiently strong to polarize most particles, severely reducing effectiveness.
ELECTRONIC AIR CLEANERS are mounted in the cold air return duct of the furnace. The furnace fan pulls airborne pollutants (particles) into the air cleaner. These particles pass through a pre-filter mesh screen into an ionizing section which induces a positive electrostatic charge into the particles, and finally these positively charged particles pass through a series of negatively-charged plates which attract and hold them like a magnet.
Although the technology has been around for many, many years it is not obsolete and is still the most efficient Air Cleaner.
This is a common complaint after installation of a new Air Cleaner or when an existing unit has been repaired. Without proper air cleaning, the microscopic particles/contaminants are present in the air and attach themselves to the larger, heavier particles (i.e. lint from furniture, cigarette ashes, etc) which fall on furniture. When an Air Cleaner is working correctly the microscopic particles are removed, so the large particles which fall are clean, i.e. white dust.
An air filter is designed to collect particles from the air. An Air Purifier is designed to change the molecular structure of the contaminant. The particles that go into the Air Purifier come out of the unit dead. Bacteria and viruses are sterilized and chemical odors are oxidized, so chemical and biological contaminants are destroyed, not masked.
